Toyohiko Kagawa

Toyohiko Kagawa

Toyohiko Kagawa was born in 1888, the son of a wealthy businessman and a concubine.  Both parents died when he was four years old and the young boy bounced between relatives who didn’t seem to actually want him.  His childhood was very lonely. 

As a teenager, he took some English classes through some Presbyterian missionaries and was converted to Christianity.  His conversion resulted in his extended Buddhist family disowning him and his having to move in with the missionary families.  As a young man, he enrolled in Tokyo Presbyterian college and later in a local Seminary.  He went to Princeton University for further studies from 1914-1916.  His theological studies, while beneficial, left a bad taste in his mouth.  He was turned off by all the discussion and debate over theological fine points and the relatively minor discussion over how to apply those doctrines, and the Christian faith in general, to a struggling world – pointing often to the parable of the Good Samaritan.

He returned to Japan, in the city of Kobe, and moved into a 6x6-foot shack in order to minister to the poor there.  Japan at the time was going through an internal struggle with its attempt to adopt Capitalism as an economic system, and the poor ended up suffering greatly.  As a result of being immersed in this suffering, Toyohiko advocated a form of Socialism based on Christian principles – an alternative to State-run Socialism, Capitalism, and Communism he called “Brotherhood Economics.”

Toyohiko was a driving force in organizing labor strikes and forming the first labor unions in Japan.  For these activities, he was arrested twice: in 1921 and in 1922.  During his time in prison, he wrote two novels, the second of which detailed his life among the destitute of Kobe.

In 1923, a devastating earthquake hit Tokyo, leveling much of the city.  He moved there, sensing an opportunity to minister to those affected.  From here, he advocated for universal male suffrage in Japan, which he succeeded in achieving, and made great strides in universal female suffrage.

With the rise of militarism in Japan in the 1930s, Toyohiko advocated for Pacifism.  After Japan invaded China, he gave a speech in China where he apologized on behalf of the Japanese people for the invasion.  This led to his arrest in 1940.  He was released in early 1941, and he traveled to the United States to advocate for peace.  He spent the duration of World War 2 in the United States, returning to Japan soon after its defeat, then achieving his long-held goal of universal women’s suffrage.  He continued to write on social issues, receiving a nomination for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947 and in 1948 and later a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1955.  All this time, he continued to evangelize the forgotten poor of Japan.  He established hospitals, schools, credit unions and churches.

Though evangelism was the primary impetus for his works, he is better known as a Christian social reformer.  Toyohiko died in 1960, at age 71, of heart failure.  His final words were from his deathbed, “Please do your best for world peace and the church in Japan.”

Quotes:

[to Emperor Hirohito in 1946] “Whosoever will be great among you…shall be the servant of all.  A ruler’s sovereignty, Your Majest, is in the hearts of the people.  Only by service to others can a man, or nation, be godlike.”

“I read that in a book that a man called Christ went about doing good.  It is very disconcerting to me that I am so easily satisfied with just ‘going about’.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyohiko_Kagawa

https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1801-1900/toyohiko-kagawa-japanese-original-11630620.html

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/143.html

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kagawa-Toyohiko

William Booth

William Booth

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was born in poverty.  At his death in 1912, over 150,000 English citizens filed by his casket and 40,000 were in attendance at his funeral including Queen Mary herself.  He was converted at age 15 via an invitation to church from a Wesleyan couple.  That night, in his diary, he wrote, “God shall have all there is of William Booth.”

A few years later, with a group of friends, he heard American preacher Charles G. Finney speak about revival.  They made their purpose the evangelization of the poor.  Booth held open-air meetings in the poorest communities and organized follow-up meetings in individuals’ homes.  After a brief foray as a pastor in a Methodist church, William and his bride Catherine, committed themselves to full-time evangelism of the poor.  He was fond of saying, “Go for souls, and go for the worst!”

William upended the ‘traditional church’ of the day.  He believed in short sermons, a fiery exhortation to receive Christ, secular music in the meetings, and visitation of the sick and poor.  These were the initial qualities to go into his “Salvation Army.”

Catherine was herself a bit of a firebrand.  She, also, was influenced by Finney, having read many of his writings during a period of being bed-bound for a few months as a young woman.  She was convinced after this time of her own calling to the ministry – in a day where Victorian values permeated dictating that ‘a woman’s place is in the home.’  Catherine responded that since the Gospel liberated men and women equally, and placed them on equal ground, then there was no Scriptural ground for denying a woman a place in the ministry, including the preaching ministry.  She eventually got the opportunity to preach at a Salvation Army service, and her abilities were noted.  She was often compared to a gentle but firm lawyer pleading with judge and jury for the life of a prisoner.  Catherine eventually gave birth to and raised eight children, in addition to the formal and informal duties as “Co-founder” of the Salvation Army.  The ministry she seemed most passionate about was training evangelists to reach the poor.

In 1865, Catherine received an invitation to preach in London.  William accepted what was meant to be a temporary position to run a mission in East London, a very squalid area of the city.  East London of that day was very densely populated, and one writer noted that “every fifth house was a gin shop.”  Many of these gin shops had steps to where even a young child could reach the counter of the bar.  William’s mission was to reach these people where they were.

William’s converts came from the drunkards and the prostitutes of that area.  They were trained to reach others and, within ten years, the ministry had spread throughout East London and in many European cities, with well over a thousand volunteers.  In 1878, William read a draft copy of the annual report for his ministry, his eyes fell on the words, “…the Christian Mission is a volunteer army.”  Booth crossed out the words, “volunteer army” and replaced them with the words “Salvation Army.”  The idea of an “army” caught on, and Booth organized the mission with a military-like structure with himself as the “General.”  Within another ten years, the Salvation Army had recorded over 250,000 converts.

His zeal was infectious.  He once said, “While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while little children go hungry, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God – I’ll fight!  I’ll fight to the very end!”

Over the years, he created a complex social relief structure to meet the needs of those he was called to serve.  He published a bestseller in 1890 entitled ‘In Darkest England and the Way Out’ to explain his plans in the regard.

When William died in 1912, seven of his eight children held leadership positions in the Salvation Army, including his seventh child, Evangeline “Eva” Booth, who served for 30 years as national commander for the North American Salvation Army mission, organizing the work and laying a structural foundation for the future of American work.  She was noted by the United States for her tremendous effort to soldiers heading to World War I, organizing “Doughnut Girls” to minister to the solders, and oversaw the appointment of Chaplains to serve in the US Army.  Eva left America in 1934 a tremendously popular figure to return to England and become the fourth General of the Salvation Army.  She retained her American citizenship until her death in 1950.

131 Christians Everyone Should Know, J.I. Packer, Broadman and Holman, 2000.

https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/history-of-the-salvation-army/